NOTTINGHAM MAN JAILED FOR CHILD SEXUAL OFFENCES AFTER PRETENDING TO BE TEEN GIRLS ONLINE
A Nottingham man exchanged sexual messages with three underage girls at the same time, asking one if she was “willing to take that step" and have sex with him.Nottingham Crown Court heard how Bob James told one that he would buy her ice cream and said he would book a hotel room in Newcastle for them to meet.
The 37-year-old, of Bakersfield, also set his messages to delete after 24 hours, but one of the girls reset them, which helped the police’'s later investigation.
Unfortunately for James, it turned out that Chloe, Immy and Willow weren’t young teenage girls at all but self-styled paedophile hunters.
Jailing him for three years and four months, Judge Julie Warburton said: "You targeted multiple children in this way." “You were communicating with not one but three people you believe to be children in the same age group." “You were quite persistent in arranging to meet these children, even offering to pay for one of them to come and meet you.
“You quite clearly have a sexual interest in children, and your pre-sentence report says you pose a high risk of serious harm to children.” Stephen Kemp, prosecuting, said the offending took place between July and September of 2023.
He said the vigilante group set up the three profiles of the girls, setting their ages to 13 or 14, and James befriended them on Facebook.
The prosecutor said the conversations started innocently but in time turned sexual with the defendant telling them they were “beautiful,” “sexy” and that he told one he wanted to meet her in Newcastle and “play with her beautiful body”.
Mr Kemp said: “He sent her four cartoons of people having sex, asked for photos of her and sent photos of himself, calling her his ‘queen’.
“He told the second one ‘, I will show you everything and teach you’, and the third, he told her he would book a hotel.
“He asked her if she’d had sex before and she replied ‘no’.
He then said to her ‘are you willing to take the step?
It will be the best day of your life.” James, of Linton Rise, pleaded guilty to charges of attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act, attempted sexual communication with a child and attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity.
He has no previous convictions.
Annbel Lenton, mitigating, said her client had never offended before and pleaded guilty at the earlier opportunity.
She said: “There has been no further offending since and this is more than two years old.
“It is something he deeply regrets and will not happen again.”
